Bexhill

Bexhill opticians collects glasses for charity

People in and around Bexhill have been doing their bit for charity by donating unwanted pairs of glasses to help people in the developing world.

Glasses donation

The town’s Specsavers store has received an impressive 300 pairs of glasses in the last month and the donations are still rolling in. The old or unwanted specs are recycled by Vision Aid Overseas, a charity which specialises in providing eyecare for those in poverty-stricken countries around the world.

One million people

The money made from recycling the glasses is then used to fund the charity’s work. Since its inception in 1987, the UK-based charity has helped more than one million people in the developing world.

Rob Lofting, store director of Specsavers in Bexhill said: ‘We would really like to thank the public for being so generous with their donations. Vision Aid Overseas is a fantastic organisation and we would love to continue to support the charity with the help of the community. We would like to encourage anyone with old glasses to drop them off at our in-store collection point.’

£550,000 raised

Vision Aid Overseas works in Africa to transform access to eyecare services and is part of the Vision 2020 initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. Since 2003 Specsavers stores have collected and recycled more than a quarter of a million glasses for the charity, and have raised over £800,000. This money has helped a number of projects including solely funding an eyecare clinic in the Zambian capital Lusaka, which was officially opened by Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins.